Page 103 of Shallow

I have no idea how long we stay like that—me inhaling him as he breaths over my shoulder—when my mother clears herthroat.

“Well,” she says pushing out of her chair, “I think I’ve left Malcolm outside long enough.” Within a few steps, she’s kissing me on the cheek. “Think about what I said, darling. I’ll be back in the morning.” Before I can form words, she pats Cary on the shoulder and winks. “Good to see you again, Carrick. It’s been a while, hasn’tit?”

“Yes,ma’am.”

“You look a little different than the last time I sawyou.”

He chuckles again and my stomach flips. “Just a little,ma’am.”

“Take care of my girl,” she whispers as she closes thedoor.

Cary walks around the table and drags Bianca’s chair next to mine. Straddling it backward, he folds his arms across the top and scans his eyes down the length of my body. “That’s an interesting outfit you’ve got onthere.”

His stare makes me want to cover myself, but at the same time, I want to jump in his lap and kiss him until he’s as breathless as I am. I want to tell him I love him, then smack the shit out of him for making ithappen.

“What, this old thing?” I say, pinching the cloth on my shoulders. “They didn’t have much of a selection at the prison boutique. Orange isn’t usually my color, but I thought, what the hell, let’s give it ago.”

Cary stares as if seeing right through me. “You didn’t dothis.”

“Are you sure about that? I’m a liar, Cary. I’m shallow, remember. It’s all about me. Me, me, me,me…”

Before I can get the last “me” out, Cary tilts his chair up onto its front legs and kisses me. His lips are soft yet insistent, and just like that, I come alive. The stroke of his tongue entwined with mine makes me forget where we are. Who we are. Why weare.

When we stop to catch our breath, he presses our foreheads together and weaves his fingers through my hair. “No, youwereshallow. You’re different now. Doing this won’t save your soul,Shy.

“I’m not trying to save my soul,” I insist, dislodging his hold and putting space between us. “I’m saving Frankie’s. They’re good kids,Cary.”

Apparently, my answer isn’t good enough because he shoves his finger in my face and charges like a bull. “You think I don’t know that? You also think I don’t know you’re sacrificing yourself for something you have no clueabout?”

I’m not in the mood for games, so I knock his finger to the side and narrow my eyes. “What the hell is that supposed tomean?”

“I know how this happened. I know who did this to you, but the why and how is too complicated to explain rightnow.”

The hesitant look on his face twists my heart into knots. “You’d better start talking,Cary.”

“It’s Taryn,” he admits, gripping the metal rungs of his chair. “She’s the one who locked you in the closet, and I have no doubt she’s the one who planted those drugs and called itin.”

Buzzing. Noise. Static. All three mask the whispers in my head telling me how stupid I’ve been. How I’ve been an unknowing participant in some twistedgame.

“How do you know this,Cary?”

“Baby…” he pleads, rising to his feet and reaching for me. However, the time for affection has passed. It’s now time foranswers.

Placing both hands on his shoulders, I push him back into his chair. “Talk,Cary.”

“Shiloh, look at me!” He grabs my wrist off his shoulder and holds it against his chest. “Whatever bullshit we pulled on each other in the beginning, you know this last week was real. What you felt was real. That’s who I am, and you fucking knowit.”

“Tell me!” Iscream.

Cary lowers his head and releases me. “I can’t. Notyet.”

I push my chair back and stand. “We’re donehere.”

I don’t look back as I walk to the door and knock. Within seconds an armed guard escorts me back to my cell and away from a truth I can’t deny and the lie I can’tignore.

What I felt was real. But what we hadwasn’t.

Thirty-Four